Melbourne, Australia-based contemporary artist Ben Frost has a pop art aesthetic with a subversive, confrontational spirit. In some of his most recent work, Frost essentially uses mainly (junk) food and pharmaceutical packaging as a canvas for his bold illustrations inspired by pop culture, Roy Lichtenstein, and manga. His mashups are not random, though… Frost exhibits his mastery of juxtaposition with these works in a way that can be truly provocative. Through his work, Frost continually pushes boundaries and challenges social norms while addressing our advertising-soaked, consumer-obsessed culture. In his own statement, Frost describes: “By subverting mainstream iconography from the worlds of advertising, entertainment, and politics, he creates a visual framework that is bold, confronting and often controversial.”

There’s an old adage that states “less is more.” And that maxim certainly holds true for this minimalist icon set developed for Schick. There was a notion in the Philippines that Schick was a female brand because of their popular line of lady razors, so the Manila branch of marketing and advertising giant J. Walter Thompson developed this slick set of graphic posters to combat that misperception. These fantastically bold graphics, by the team at JWT Manila, feature recognizable historical and pop culture figures with distinct facial hair (Mr. T from The A-Team, V from V for Vendetta, Salvador Dali, Groucho Marx and Charlie Chaplin) that one can achieve using Schick razors. We love how the product is seamlessly integrated into the designs. There’s certainly market research and number crunching that goes into how and where to market with visuals like these, but we don’t see why a campaign like this wouldn’t be effective here in the US. There seems to be a sort of facial hair renaissance happening right now, and aggressively bold visuals like these would be hard to miss.